Thursday, April 5, 2012

My Top 10 Pound for Pound Active Boxers

When ranking the fighters I broke it down in 3 stages.  One and two are easily put together.  The fighters from 3-5 and 6-10 can be interchangeable.

#1 – Floyd Mayweather Jr. (42-0-0)
            There is not a better well rounded fighter in today’s game.  He may not be the most offensive, but he is easily the best defensively fighter today and will rank highly all-time.  He has never lost.  His speed is second to none.  His counter punching ability is the best today.  He has underrated power and a slick jab that he throws upstairs and down.  He has touched the canvas only once in his career, when he broke his hand on an opponents head.  He has rarely lost a round in his career and when a fight did come into question against Castillo, he went on to convincingly beat him in a rematch.  Say what you want about Mayweather and his choices in opponents, but all top fighters do it.  He has not stepped in the ring with who we wanted him to all the time, but his opponents have been very legit and Floyd has beat them convincingly.  (May 5th vs. Miguel Cotto)

#2 – Manny Pacquiao (54-3-2)
            Manny can easily be put as the # 1 fighter today, but I believe he has slowed done a bit sense his epic run to welterweight.  Manny has 3 blemishes on his record, but no losses since Erik Morales in 2005.  That’s a run of seven years against some of the toughest competition of this era.  His run will rank right up there with some of the greatest historically.  As dominate as Mayweather’s defense may be, Manny brings that dominance in his offensive output, while improving his defense throughout his career.  Manny’s devastating knockout of Ricky Hatton leads many people to believe he has huge punching power.  This is not necessarily true as Manny likes to touch you early to make you feel secure and to open you up a bit.  As the fight wears on many puts the power behind it and bust you up with his amazing combination punching.  (June 9th vs. Timothy Bradley)

#3 – Andre Ward (25-0-0)
            Could Ward be the future of boxing?  He certainly has the skill set.  Ward went through the Showtime Super 6 tournament with relative ease.  He has a solid offense, exceptional defense, amazing ability to control the tempo and style of the fight.  If there is one downfall to Ward, it would be his inability or desire to finish fighters off, but the name of the game is to win and he does it.  Ward is only 28 years old and has now entered the prime of his career.  After the competition Ward has faced in the super 6 he deserves time off or a tune-up bout against a solid fighter.  Make no mistake about it, if Bute beats Froch in the future fight, Bute becomes an instant contender to Ward in the Super-Middleweight rankings and pound for pound status.  Until then Ward has faced and beaten the much better competition in style. (vs. TBA)

#4 – Sergio Martinez (49-2-2)
            Sergio suffers from the fact that the middleweight division is not very strong.  The saying goes you can only beat who is in front of you and Sergio certainly has done that.  He has even done it in very impressive fashion at times.  Sergio has an awkward style, combine that with exceptional speed and athleticism, he is a nightmare for his opponents.  Since losing a controversial decision to former pound for pound fighter Paul Williams he has gone on to become the Middleweight champion winning 5 fights, 4 by stoppage.  Martinez has continued to call out fighters in his own division and some south.  Coming off an 11th round stoppage against Macklin, Sergio will have to wait patiently for the possible money fight this fall against divisional money man Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (Fall vs. Chavez Jr. / Andy Lee)

#5 – Nonito Donaire (28-1-0)
            Donaire is in the prime of his career at age 29.  He has not lost in 27 fights and absolutely burst on the big time scene with his devastating knockout of Fernando Montiel.  He unfortunately could not capitalize on his success right away as the business aspect of boxing got a bit messy.  Things were later sorted out and he took on undefeated Omar Narvaez, who stepped up for division below.  The fight was boring to many as Omar went into a defensive shell and Nonito worked out the kinks of his 10-month layoff.  After dominating the bantamweight division Nonito stepped up to super-bantamweight and beat a tough Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. to win a vacant super bantamweight title.  (July 14th vs. Christian Mijares)

#6 – Wladimir Klitschko (57-3-0) (July 7th vs. Tony Thompson)
           
#7 – Vitali Klitschko (44-2-0) (vs. TBA)

#8 – Juan Manuel Marquez (53-6-1) (June 14th vs. Serhiy Fedchenko)

#9 – Timothy Bradley (28-0-0) (June 9th vs. Timothy Bradley)

#10 – Yuriokis Gamboa (21-0-0) (vs. TBA)

Honorable Mention – Miguel Cotto, Lucian Bute, Bernard Hopkins

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